Judge will review decision for nudists

Reprieve granted on state crackdown

An Orange County judge kept everyone in suspense yesterday as to whether she will uphold her preliminary ruling awarding nudists a temporary reprieve from a threatened crackdown at San Onofre State Beach.

After a hearing in Santa Ana, Superior Court Judge Sheila Fell said she will review her initial decision in favor of the nudists. She has up to 90 days to make her final decision.

If she reaffirms her preliminary ruling, state parks officials will be forced to indefinitely postpone plans to issue misdemeanor citations to beachgoers caught in the buff.

In June, parks officials announced they were rescinding their longtime policy of allowing nudity at the Trail 6 area of San Onofre State Beach. Enforcement was scheduled to begin Sept. 2 because of an increasing number of complaints from the public of lewd behavior, officials said.

Nudists have frequented the beach at the south end of the state beach near Camp Pendleton for more than three decades.

“To me, it's a matter of freedom,” said Gerda Hayes, a Huntington Beach resident who said she has enjoyed the beach without a bathing suit for 32 years. “There isn't any other place for (naturists) to go.”

Two groups who support nudists, the Naturists Action Committee and Friends of San Onofre Beach, filed a lawsuit challenging the state's decision.

The suit contends that parks officials cannot unilaterally change a longtime policy without holding a public hearing and codifying the change through the state's Office of Administrative Law.

Since 1979, park rangers statewide have adhered to the “Cahill policy,” issued by then-state parks Director Russell Cahill, which instructs rangers to ignore nudity unless a member of the public complains.

At yesterday's hearing, the state's lawyer, Deborah Fletcher, argued that the Cahill policy is not a regulation but merely “an internal department guideline.”

The attorney for the naturists, Elva Kopacz, said the Cahill policy has created “de facto clothing-optional beaches” throughout the state.